Priscus Metadidon

Priscus "the Communicator" (Latin: Priscus, et communicator, Greek: Πρίσκο το μεταδίδων, Prisko to Metadidon) (523-568) was a strategos of the Byzantine Empire. He served as the governor of Brixia (Brescia) under Emperor Justin II of Byzantium, and gained his epithet "the Communicator" by helping to resolve disputes between the feudal lords of Pavia and Milan. Priscus served as the general in command of Justin's army at the Battle of Marudum against the Lombards in 568, in which he was killed along with his horse.

Biography
Priscus Metadidon was born in 523, the son of John and Doris. He was born in the city of Thessalonica (Thessaloniki, Greece) in the Byzantine Empire to an ethnically Greek family. Priscus served as an officer in the armed forces of Byzantium under Emperor Justinian I, and he took part in his conquest of Ostrogothic Italy, serving at the Battle of Taginae in 552 AD as the commander of a wing of the Byzantine army. Priscus rose to become the Governor of Brixia (Brescia) in northern Italy, commanding the Byzantine garrison there as well.He gained the epithet "Metadidon", the Greek word for "communicator", for resolving disputes between the feudal lords of Pavia and Milan, who argued over resources and funds from Constantinople. Priscus was promoted to become a strategos under the reign of Emperor Justin II of Byzantium, and he fought against the invading Germanic Lombards when they made incursions into Italy in 568 AD.

That same year, the Lombards established themselves in the region of northern Italy now known as "Lombardy" due to their influence, and they besieged the city of Laus Pompeia (Lodi) that same year, forcing Priscus to lead an army of 758 Byzantine troops to relieve the siege. Led by Chnonodemar of Villanterio, 690 Lombard troops marched out from the siege lines to encounter the Byzantines. They met the Byzantines 8 miles from Laus Pompeia at Marudum (Marudo), where battle was joined.

At the battle of Marudum, the Lombards displayed their ferocity in battle by routing a much larger Byzantine army that attacked them in a full-frontal assault, and the Lombards counterattacked. The Lombard Golden Band pursued Priscus and his bodyguards as they fled the battlefield, and Priscus was hacked down from his horse by one of the Lombard warriors, killing him.